A second interview of Roger Martin by Bob Morris

Roger Martin

Roger Martin is dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He was appointed to a seven-year term beginning in September 1998 and re-appointed to a further five-year term effective July 2005. He is also a professor of strategic management at the Rotman School. A Canadian from Wallenstein, Ontario, he was formerly a director of Monitor Company, a global strategy consulting firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During his 13 years with Monitor, he founded and chaired Monitor University, the firm’s educational arm, served as co-head of the firm for two years, and founded the Canadian office. His research interests lie in the areas of global competitiveness, integrative thinking, business design and corporate citizenship.  His published works include The Responsibility Virus: How Control Freaks, Shrinking Violets And the Rest of Us Can Harness the Power of True Partnership (Basic Books, 2002), The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking (Harvard Business School Press, 2007), The Future of the MBA: Designing the Thinker of the Future, with Mihnea Moldoveanu (Oxford University Press, 2008), and most recently, The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage (Harvard Business Press, 2009).

Morris: A great deal has (and hasn’t) happened in the global business world since our last conversation. In your opinion, what has been the single most significant change and why do you think so?

Martin: To me what is most interesting is that we had a giant stock market meltdown in 2001 and an economic recession following and then made a number of regulatory changes that were designed to make sure such a thing never happened again.  Well, it didn’t exactly work out that way!  Within seven years we had an even worse stock market blow-out and an even worse recession. Last time it took 70 years between crashes.  This time it was only 7 years. It is time to take a more critical look at the theories behind our regulatory fixes that failed so horribly in 2008-9.

Morris: To what extent (if any) have the values, goals, concerns, and issues of your MBA candidates changed in recent years?

Martin: Environmental sustainability has moved from the fringes of the MBA student mind to its very center.  Today’s students really care about sustainability and are going to bring that concern into their jobs.  I am really encouraged by what I see on that front.  These students really want to make a difference on the sustainability front. The other thing that is evident is that more of them are interested in immediate post-MBA careers in the not-for-profit sector.  It used to be that many students imagined that they might move to that sector sometime later in his career.  But now more are interested in that right away.

Morris: In your opinion, what is the single area in which even the most prestigious business schools are in greatest need of improvement? What specifically do you suggest?

Martin: It is in helping students solve real business problems of the sort they will face in the world into which they will graduate.  Business schools still teach them to solve stylized problems that fit nicely into course boxes.  I understand why.  It is easier to teach this way and there is more robust theory for narrowly-defined problems. But these aren’t the kind of problems that graduates will face when they enter the business world.  It would be nice if they would be, but they simply aren’t.  Business schools need to teach students to think integratively or they will be seen increasingly as teaching technocrats not managers.

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To read the complete interview, please click here.